Sunday, August 03, 2008

In what could be the start of a new trend, author Tao Lin is selling 60% of the US royalties of his upcoming novel to the public. It's like an IPO! From Tao Lin:

People who buy shares will also have more meaning in life if they already like and promote my writing, because they can promote my writing and also be making money for themselves, which can be exchanged for "goods" in concrete reality; therefore existential despair due to "having to do what you normally wouldn't be doing if you had a lot of money" can be relieved to some extent. Also it will be "funny" and "interesting" "for everyone" probably if people buy shares. You can call yourself a "producer" of my second novel if you want to do that. This is like a grant or something except it's like the stock market or something. You will be a stockholder in "Tao Lin's Second Novel's U.S. Royalties Corporation." "As people resell their shares the price of each share will go up or down, you will see this conveyed on MSNBC as a number going by on the bottom of the TV screen."

“The founder and former chief executive of Orlando-based Surgilight Inc. has been convicted by a Brooklyn jury of fraud and money laundering.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, J.T. Lin was convicted for manipulating Surgilight’s stock price by stating in press releases that it developed a way to cure presbyiopia, an age-related deterioration of eyesight.

Those statements were false, the SEC maintains.

Shares in Surgilight climbed from about $2.50 to $25 on that information. According to the SEC, which regulates publicly traded companies, Lin then sold off Surgilight shares he controlled for a profit of about $1.5 million. He then wired that money overseas.

Lin stepped down as CEO of Surgilight in August 2001.

Surgilight placed Lin, a former University of Central Florida professor, on leave when he was indicted on the fraud and money laundering charges in April 2002. He remained on the company payroll as a consultant until July 31.

In addition to the criminal case in Brooklyn, Lin and his wife, Suchin Lin, face civil charges for violating laws governing securities trading. The SEC is seeking to recover the $1.5 million in question plus interest and other penalties.

The Lins had previously settled a civil action filed against them involving another laser eye surgery company in September 1998.”

His parents’ fraudulent claims about their product caused investors over a million dollars in losses when they bought stock in good faith in this couple.

As I’ve said, Tao Lin is simply a crook like his parents. There is an SEC document about “Tao Lin Enterprises” which they apparently used to launder money, and SEC filings show that Tao Lin himself owned Surgilight stock. Check out Edgar and whatever else you can find out online about this young scam artist and his crooked family before you invest a penny!

Trusting investors lost a lot of money by believing in Tao Lin’s parents and buying Surgilight stock.

They fled the U.S. for their native Taiwan and are there now, having managed to launder the money. They live well while those of us they stole from are shit out of luck.

Again, Tao Lin has NEVER publicly addressed how he feels about aiding and abetting his parents in their fraud, about living a luxurious lifestyle in their grand Orlando home on the money stolen from others.

He seems to be a sociopath, unconcerned with people’s feelings any more than he is with the “greedy corporations” he shoplifts from.

Tao Lin is a bad person. I can’t imagine anyone with his lack of morals and ethics being a worthwhile writer. He is working on this scheme, as well as other scams, because his parents can’t send him the money that supported him his life now that the federal government is monitoring closely. Remember, there are still civil actions pending and an SEC judgment against them.

Apparently, unlike the other thousands up-and-coming writers, musicians and artists in New York, he feels he’s too special to have to do anything as mundane as take a day job. Most novelists have to do some sort of work, but not Tao Lin. It’s beneath him, or maybe he’s just supremely lazy.

He’s never really worked a day in his life.

Really, the only thing that can save this young man from what happened to his parents — his father eventually served time in federal prison — is for him to get a slap in the face in the form of reality.

He’s published three books of poetry, and Amazon and Bookscan sales figures reveal that each succeeding book has sold fewer copies than the last, so his long-range literary future is bleak.

If he could make the kind of money he claims, the smart editors and publishers at Random House, Farrar Straus, and all the other New York book publishing houses would have signed him up.

But he publishes his books with Melville House, a small independent two-person firm who apparently can’t see any need to give him the kind of advance on royalties Mr. Lin thinks he deserves.

So if no mainstream book publishers think his next novel is worth anything, and his current independent publisher thinks it isn’t worth all that much, why should anyone invest in a product like his next novel?

The whole project may be fiction.

This scheme is “The Producers” - except Tao Lin doesn’t have Max Bialystock’s charm -- at least not to anyone who's not an adolescent like 90 per cent of his audience.

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Producer, Director, DP, Editor. Works on documentaries, commercials and branded content. A Spurs fan, experienced astronomer and occasional ITK. I.Z. Reloaded covers news, pop culture, blogs, websites, gadgets, the fascinating and the weird from a Singapore perspective. The blog is a runner up in both the 2006 Weblog Awards (Best Asia Blog) and the 2004 Asia Blog Awards (Best Singapore Blog). Contact him at izreloaded[at]gmail[dot]com.